I have returned from the Magyars and their köztársaság

Good luck pronouncing that. I have absolutely no idea how to say it, but I saw it everywhere and I figured it meant Hungary or Hungarian. The second, big word means Republic apparently. Hungarian is one crazy language. One second it sounds Russian, then German, then Finnish, then some crazy combination or arrangement of all 3. And then, just for kicks, it smacks you in the face with something entirely different, just like that. Seriously I wouldn't be surprised if kids take about 5 years to start talking over there. In fact after a little more than a week in Hungary I know how to say approximately 1 Hungarian word and that is a food item...a delicious food item. I never picked up on how to say 'Hello', or 'Thank you' (ok somebody told me this one, it sounded like couscous, but I have forgotten it), or ever 'Yes' or 'No'. I just stuck to the basics; food. Despite this incredible ignorance I mastered the public transportation of Budapest, saw nearly all the sites, ate some goulash, and I even saw a riot. Not bad for a week by myself.

I made it back last Friday night and have been recovering from the jetlag (I slept for almost 15 hours yesterday, I don't think I have ever done that before). So here's the deal. I have a ton of pictures, but not nearly enough time to post them all in one sitting so I will be uploading them as quickly as I can. Hopefully I can put some up everyday for the next little while. I will try and group them according to sites or themes and that will more or less coincide with what I did while I was over there. Seriously I have got lots so I should have plenty to blog about for a while so get comfortable. Just to kind of get things going here are some nice views of Budapest.

For those who don't know Budapest is actually two cities; Buda and Pest. That side with that big purdy looking building is the Pest side (that building is the Parliament building, I'll have a whole post on that one). They are separated by the mighty Danube.

Despite what you may have heard it is an awfully brown river. The Pest side seemed to me to be more of the commerce and business side of Budapest. It is a bit bigger I think with lots of practical buildings. Everything seems a little more run down and it is all covered in graffiti, but it has some nice things (like Parliament, the Opera house, St. Steven's Basilica, and more). The Buda side seemed more touristy and suburban to me (with sites like the Royal Palace, the Fisherman's Bastion, St. Matthias Church, the Citadel, etc.). I liked it. It seemed a bit cleaner too though I suppose I saw run down neighborhoods on both sides. Here are some shots of the Buda side.

I liked it over there, but of course I was staying on the Pest side in the fabulous Medosz hotel. Check out these sweet digs:

That sweet little TV showed me American movies and TV shows in Hungarian (and I still learned nothing). I did get CNN and the BBC and for a while I got this great German MTV station that taught me some nice German tunes, but each day that I was there I progressively lost a channel including my German MTV. Good thing there was plenty more to do in Budapest.

So I will try and post segments of my trip each day or two this week. Hopefully in a little bit you will have seen it all and it will be as though you were there without the 12 hours of air time (no in flight movies for you suckers, I saw 3 on my way back alone). You will be hearing much more about some of these things, but in summary I had a great time. I was a bit uneasy about being there by myself. In fact I thought it was going to be one long week, but there was so much to run and see that I stayed pretty busy and pretty tired (and my old man's back returned during my first day of touring). The architecture and sculptures were amazing. The conference itself was fun too. I am really glad I had the chance to do this. Thanks Boss!